As an important strategic resource and environmental pollutant, uranium has high toxicity and economic value. Photocatalytic reduction of soluble hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is a green and economic method to achieve uranium extraction, whereas the reported photocatalyst commonly requires a long period of >1 h to reach a high extraction efficiency (>90%). Herein, we reported the ultrafast photocatalytic uranium extraction by up-conversion Er doped ZnO nanosheets. In the initial U(VI) concentration of 200 mg/L, the Er doped ZnO with 4% doping level (Er_0.04-ZnO) nanosheets achieved 91.8% within 3 min, which was at least a magnitude shorter relative to ever-reported materials. The Er_0.04-ZnO nanosheets reached a high removal efficiency of 96.1% in 10 min, with a considerable U(VI) extraction capacity of 3036 mg/g. The mechanistic study showed that the Er doping induced the up-conversion properties and increases the carrier density, thus enhancing the light adsorption and accelerating the U(VI) extraction.

铀作为重要的战略资源和环境污染物，具有高毒性和经济价值。可溶性六价铀（U（VI））的光催化还原是实现铀提取的绿色经济方法，而报道的光催化剂通常需要> 1小时的长时间才能达到高提取效率（> 90％）。在此，我们报道了通过上转换 Er 掺杂的 ZnO 纳米片进行的超快光催化铀提取。在 200 mg/L 的初始 U(VI) 浓度下，4% 掺杂水平的 Er 掺杂 ZnO (Er _0.04 -ZnO) 纳米片在 3 分钟内达到 91.8%，这至少比以往报道的材料短一个数量级. 尔_0.04-ZnO纳米片在10分钟内达到96.1%的高去除率，具有相当大的U(VI)提取能力3036 mg/g。机理研究表明，Er掺杂诱导了上转换特性并增加了载流子密度，从而增强了光吸附并加速了U(VI)的提取。